I'm in need of support and friendship with Kindred Spirit like minds and there are a few forums I could post, but I'm not sure which forums to post this in and I'm looking for online and offline local friends. What is the best approach here?

For local friends you'd post to your Tribal Area forum under Finding Your Tribe.

For online friends, if you're pregnant then I suggest you join a Due Date Club. Otherwise, just start posting in the forums that interest you most or where you have need for discussion about a specific topic. Online friends in the Mothering community come about naturally through your broad participation. People get to know you through your posts and activity in the community in discusison. :)

To get to the main forum page that lists all the different forums just place your mouse on the Community button up on the top right and you'll get a dropdown menu. Click Forums and that will take you to the main page showing all of our different forums. Just scroll down the page to find what forum you would like to post in. Once you find the forum you want, go here and read the tutorial about how to post: http://www.mothering.com/community/a/welcome-to-mothering-forum-basics#user_newthread